FIA European Formula 3 Championship -Jonathan’s best Euro Formula 3 run yet

South Africa’s Jonathan Aberdein enjoyed a splendid FIA European Formula 3 weekend with a double podium at Silverstone over the weekend as he jumped up the championship table with a significant points haul in England. The weekend started well for Aberdein with fourth and third in Friday practice before qualifying saw him fourth, fifth and second on a hugely competitive grid on Saturday morning.

Jonathan had a great first race and was third with a few laps to race, when his car’s full course yellow speed limiter failed to scupper a maiden podium for the Capetonian. “That was such a raw deal!” Jonathan rued. “I could almost touch the podium, but there’s another race this afternoon.”

Jonathan did not have to wait too long to finally mount that overall European Formula 3 podium, alongside Michael’s son Mick Schumacher and teammate Juri Vips Saturday afternoon: “My maiden FIA European Formula 3 podium!” a delighted Aberdein confirmed. “I was quick early on and Fabio Scherrer’s retirement promoted me to third — my Motorpark Dallara-Volkswagen has been really fast at Silverstone, so special thanks to the team — all that hard work is now really paying off!”

Jonathan then went on to deliver a repeat podium on Sunday: “I am so happy with a repeat third place this weekend – such a pity because it could so easily have been a triple too! “I was pretty comfortable — the drivers behind me were getting closer, but I wasn’t really worried — I concentrated on avoiding errors. There was no way they could pass without me making a mistake.

“This is probably my best weekend in racing yet — now it’s just a matter of keeping the pace going and building on this foundation.” The weekend also saw Aberdein score double the amount of points he had amassed the whole season so far to jump from 16th to 12th in the overall championship and from ninth to seventh in the rookie title race with everything to play for in the 12 more races to come starting with Misano on the Italian coast this coming weekend 25-26 August.